Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat topped the second practice session at Singapore’s Marina Bay Circuit on Friday, as the current F1 pacesetters Mercedes seemingly struggled on the super-soft tyres. However, some of their rivals, including Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, believed that the team may be holding back on their true pace.
After comfortably leading the opening practice, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg found themselves in fourth and seventh places respectively, failing to gain the same amount time as their rivals did after putting on the option compound.
This allowed Kvyat to take the practice honours, with Kimi Raikkonen slotting his Ferrari in second place. Daniel Ricciardo finished a tenth adrift to complete the top three positions.
Vettel was only fifth fastest in the second Ferrari, while Force India would be fairly pleased with 6th and 9th places. The Silverstone squad has vowed to safeguard 5th place in the championship, while Perez himself is on verge of extending his contract with the team to the end of 2016.
Further down, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished an encouraging eighth, over three-quarters of a second slower than the fastest time of the session. The beleaguered outfit are hoping to return to points-scoring form in this event following their struggles at tracks like Spa-Francorchamps and Monza that calls for a strong power unit.
Their biggest challenge to do so is Williams - 11th and 17th in practice 2 - who have a tendency to gain a heap of time over Friday night, as their practice programme focuses on heavy fuel runs. But the team is aware of its dismal showing in Monaco and Hungary - two tracks similar to Singapore in terms of characteristics.
Meanwhile, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen finished 10th quickest while Carlos Sainz Jr was classified 15th ahead of Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman has revealed that he has made up his mind about 2016, although he refused to provide any details.
He has two options at disposal: either stay at the Enstone squad and reap benefits of an imminent Renault takeover, or join the new-to-2016 Haas squad.
F1 debutant Alexander Rossi was marginally outpaced by Will Stevens in the opening practice session, but a crash by the Briton in the evening session prevented any further comparisons. Rossi is set to take part in five races this season in place of Roberto Merhi, only missing out on the Russian and Abu Dhabi rounds, which clash with GP2.
Coming into the weekend, FIA clarified the procedure of checking tyre pressures, after the investigation into the tyre pressures of the Mercedes AMG cars that could have lead to Lewis Hamilton being disqualified in the final classification. In potentially bigger news, however, media reports suggested that F1's Strategy Group had agreed to cap the cost of engines supplied to teams by manufacturers along with an agreement to ban wind-tunnel testing. Neither are confirmed as yet and there are already follow up reports of teams, including Ferrari, being opposed to the specific proposals within the larger efforts to cut costs.
And finally, the haze covering Singapore - originating from Indonesia due to intense forest fires - had put the running of the grand prix in doubt, until organisers decided not to make any changes to the schedule.
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